This is my favorite episode of "Dragnet" and I love to watch it whenever it comes on TV. However, at the same time, it might just be the one my wife hates the most--not because it was poorly made but because it makes her cringe--it is THAT hard to watch for some people.
An odd series of robberies is occurring. Some strange person wearing some sort of homemade superhero outfit is running about in tights--stealing memorabilia from local theaters and from a movie studio. All of the stuff relates to superheroes and it's inconceivable that anyone would do this. In the end, a very poor and extremely pathetic man is caught--leading to one of the most grueling and difficult interviews in TV cop history--you might just find yourself crying or changing the channel as it's tough to watch this loser disintegrate during the course of the interview. The very end, with the movie poster, is a classic. Some might find it goes 'over-the-top', I thought it was just perfect.
Tim Donnelly stars as the pathetic thief. You might recognize him as one of the firemen from Jack Webb's later TV series, "Emergency". His acting was actually better and more believable in this earlier show ("Dragnet"), as his role on "Emergency" was almost comic-relief.